New Car/Review

Raod impressions:Infiniti Q45

by Andrew Frankl European Bureau Chief

After 6 months in Europe it is always a little bit difficult to get used to
driving in California. Difficult because by and large people are considerably
more polite and certainly, compared to the French and the Germans, not to mention
the Italians, they do drive more slowly.

Still, there have got to be worse ways of getting used to the hills of San
Francisco then behind the wheel of the new,1997 Infiniti Q45.
Let's make no bones about it-it is a very nice car. A 4.1 litre V8 engine,266
HP,4 speed auto transmission, traction control, disc brakes on all four wheels, the
best car radio/cassette/CD that money can buy(BOSE),the list is endless.
The air conditioning works very well and it is very easy to adjust. Is there
nothing wrong with this car I hear you ask? Well, not really apart from a couple
of subjective things.

Having driven just about every car under the sun over the past 30 years I always
assume that I am hiring a car I've never driven before. Could I drive it straight
off, at night, without making a total fool of myself. You know, little things like
finding the light switches, the heater controls, the rear screen wipers.(Hands up
all those who have found the latter without a great deal of trouble on any car?)
Well, here the Q45 scored an own goal of monumental proportions. Just imagine
yourself in the middle of the night running out of gas. Finally you get to a
pump where there is no attendant, like in Switzerland it is fully automatic. You
put in some money or a card and out comes the gas. Yeah, right. Provided you can
open the locked fuel cap. I would be tempted to make this into one of those quiz
games where to couples are asked to do things against the clock. Find the fuel
cap opener on the Q45 would, I think, be a classic.
Would you, hand on heart, look for it under the driver's armrest? I would not
that's for sure.
Anyway, I suppose you could always figure out from the hand-book, provided you had
one. My Q45 didn't. Luckily I was in Sacramento, in the middle of the afternoon and
we did find it eventually.

Passengers loved the comfort, loved the massive amount of room. They did think
that the suspension was a little bit on the soft side and I had to agree.
Personally, give my little brother Q30 every time with that lovely 3 litre engine
and the
fabulous 5 speed gear-box.

At 48 thousand dollars the Q45, does I think run into image problems. At that
price the
Mercedes E range and the new 5 series BMWs offer very serious competition not
just as cars but in image terms as well.
The Audi A8 is just coming into the United States. It is very good and totally
understated. It is for people who know that it is a good car but don't
necessarily wish to
share that knowledge with the rest of the world. In respect it could be the Q45's
twin.